My belief is that Google finds it difficult to explain the validity of why a site would have several different foreign language-speaking TLDs linking to it if the site is in a completely different language.

(This could change in the future, thanks to rapid advancements in translation technology. But as it stands now, too many backlinks from foreign TLDs can hurt your rankings.)

So if you have an abundance of foreign TLDs linking to your site, it’d be wise for you to consider removing them from your backlink portfolio.

To find out if you do have foreign TLDs (and how many), just go to Your Links module in Monitor Backlinks and find the TLD/IP column:

If the TLD has a flag that’s different from your own country’s, then it’s coming from a foreign TLD.

Answer #4: You Don’t Have Enough Followed Backlinks

All backlinks in existence, regardless of quality, fall under two main categories:

Followed

Nofollowed

Followed links are links that Google considers when deciding where and how to index your site or page.

Nofollowed links are links that Google does not consider when ranking a site or page. They completely ignore these links.

So it goes without saying that if your backlink portfolio is full of nofollowed links, then you’re going to have a tough time ranking your site on Google.

Nofollowed links should occur only as a natural byproduct of followed-focused link building.

How to Find Your Followed and Nofollowed Backlinks

How do you know how many followed and nofollowed links you currently have?

The simplest and quickest way to check is to use Monitor Backlinks’ Your Links module.

While you’re on the module, take notice of the numbers at the top-left of your list of backlinks:

“Links That Google Considers” represents your site’s total number of followed backlinks …

While “Links That Google Ignores” represents your site’s total number of nofollowed backlinks.

So, looking at the image above, the referenced site has 61 followed backlinks and 170 nofollowed backlinks.

If you click on either of the numbers, Monitor Backlinks will automatically filter your backlinks to show only that type of backlink:

Another way you can check if a backlink is followed or nofollowed inside the Your Links module is to look at the Status column.

There, you’ll see followed backlinks are labeled with a green “F” and nofollowed backlinks are labeled with an orange “NF.”

Answer #5: You Don’t Have Enough High-Quality Backlinks

Earlier I told you that your backlink campaigns should focus on both quality and quantity.

Well, most marketers just starting out tend to focus only on quantity.

And I get it.

Their rationale behind it is this:

“If my top competitor has 300 backlinks, then I should be able to outrank them if I get 310 backlinks.”

(And back in the early 2000s, that was actually a viable strategy.)

But, thankfully, times have changed and Google places much more emphasis on giving their users helpful and valuable search results with their queries.

And one of the main ways they do that is by focusing on the quality of the links pointing back to a site or page.

So if your site has more backlinks than your competitors but you’re still not ranking on Page One for your target keyword, then the culprit is most likely your site’s lack of quality backlinks compared to your competitors’.

In other words:

You need to change gears and focus on getting some backlinks from authoritative, top-tier sites related to your site’s industry.

A few key strategies I recommend for doing this are:

The Skyscraper Technique

This technique involves three main steps:

1) Researching the top results for your target keyword, 2) Creating a piece of content that’s more valuable and more in-depth than those top results, and 3) Publishing and promoting that content to key influencers in your industry.

(You can learn more about the Skyscraper technique and how to implement it from this post.)

Broken Link Building

Broken link building involves finding links on high-authority sites that currently lead to dead or out-of-date pages, either locating or creating a piece of content on your site that will serve as a better alternative for the site to link to, and then reaching out to the site owner to request that they link to your page instead.

Testimonials

Testimonials can score you some easy high-quality backlinks.

What you do is find industry-related product and service providers, either purchase their product or service or ask for a review copy, use it and write an engaging review and send the review back to the provider. They’ll often post the review on their site with a backlink.

Written By

Ty is the founder and owner of TyWrites.com. He specializes in B2B blog writing, content marketing, and SEO. When he's not helping B2B businesses engage their site visitors, you can find him reading, playing roguelikes, and building Lego towers on the floor with his son.